Police crackdown on unintentional 911 calls

January 10, 2012

Police in Toronto held a press conference Monday to announce a crackdown on unintentional 911 calls.

Officials say pocket-dialed 911 calls are tying up emergency phone lines and have launched a campaign encouraging cell phone users to use the keypad locking feature on their cell phones.

“For every 911 call made operators must find out if an emergency exists meaning precious seconds are wasted on accidental calls,” one official said. “Every time that happens someone with a real genuine emergency is being delayed.”

Other Ontario departments say they have been having the same problem as well. The York Regional Police received said unintentional calls accounted for 37 percent of all of its 911 calls. Read more